Albert Tanutama

I watched Batman Begins this evening and impressed. Christopher Nolan deserves thumbs up for giving more depth into this typically-easy-to-forget-kind-of-movie. It is more than just a CG (computer graphic) showcase – it has a story. Roger Ebert explored this movie in-depth.

You might have heard the hype about it before, Yahoo! is finally made available their new blogging service called Yahoo!360° to the public, which has been in limited public beta since announced in March 2005. It allows people to write a blog (including moblogging – blogging using mobile phone), share pictures, write reviews and recommendation, as well as share musics (through their LAUNCHcast Station).

Personally, I didn’t find it impressive. Two things that are lacking: customization features and good user experience. I was stuck with typical Yahoo! look and feel in my 360 page, and daunted with the things that I have to do initially. Unfortunately, they didn’t adopt great editing features from Flickr which utilizes AJAX to minimize page refresh. It would be able to make a better blogging experience than existing ones.

I got a neat surprise today – an invite from Odeo to try out their new services. Odeo is created to be the place to browse, listen, upload, download, sync to iPod (or any Mp3 player) – a podcasting platform.

Podcasting is

a way of publishing files to a website that allows users to subscribe to the site and receive new files as they are posted. Most podcasts are spoken word audio created by individuals, often on a particular theme such as technology or movies. Because new files are downloaded automatically by subscribers, podcasting allows individuals to have a self-published, syndicated radio show.

What’s impressed me about Odeo is its good quality and surprisingly smooth audio (at least from 2 out of 4 channels that I’ve listened) on the Web itself without downloading the mp3s locally (Yep. It’s Flash) – however, it also means I must remain on the page itself ^-^” . For a service in preview stage, Odeo provides suprisingly a good numbers of selected podcasting channels (featured channels, new shows, new channels, top 40 channels, and zeitgeist). It also offers Odeo Syncr tools to download the mp3s to my local pc. In the future, they plan to release features to enable users to create and publish podcast easily. (For more teasers, check out flickr for more Odeo screenshots)

If you’d like to know more about podcast, visit ipodder.org. You might want to try ipodder software to subscribe and download the mp3s. Personally, ipodder suits me better than Odeo sync, which is more tightly coupled with the Odeo website.

Continuing the mobile phone memes from Hendrikch – These are the handphones that I’ve been using for the past 4 years .

I used Nokia 5110, given by my parents during my final year undergraduate study in 2000. The popular phone during those days was Nokia 3210. Afterwards, I bought a new one when I started to work in 2001 along with 2 years M1 subscription plan. The plan was then transferred to my sister, while I switched to M1 prepaid card. (in between I used Virgin Mobile plan – Unfortunately, it wasn’t succesful and soon, Virgin decided to move out from Singapore). In 2003, my previous contract with M1 expired and I decided to switch from M1 to Starhub for two reasons: they offered free incoming call and also a brand new Nokia 8250. At that time, Nokia 6100 and 6610 were the popular models.

Currently, I’m using a new variation on Nokia 8250 (which I call it as Nokia 8250i ) to replace my phone which was brought back to Indonesia early this year. The new variation has a flip cover – courtesy of my sister. The flip turned out to be very useful, especially since I often forgot to lock my keypad. It was an elegant design for N8250.

And so I managed to call American Express this afternoon. Sadly, the experience was not much better than UOB – tho in slightly different manner. The first thing that they asked was my credit card number. I didn’t hear any further instructions to reach the operator should I didn’t have the number handy. After selecting a few options, I could only manage to hear my latest account balance.

I started to worry for two reasons: I suddenly have to pay more from what have been stated in my statement of account, and second, I still didn’t hear the number to talk to the operator. This wasn’t something that I expect, especially since they told me to contact them only during the working hour. Well, it doesn’t make much sense if I still get the machine to answer me during the working hour isn’t it?

Anyway, I finally managed to hear the long-waited-number “0″ to talk with the operator. This time, I didn’t have to wait that long to reach them. The conversation was brief – I clarified the sudden increase in my payment. Apparently, because I was under their KrisFlyer membership program, I need to pay the annual fee of SGD60. This is not a pleasant news, especially since I didn’t utilize the membership much. I decided to terminate the card immediately. However, they could not do that by themselves, and thus, I was transferred to their customer relationship department – after asking my handphone number. Just in-case the call gets disconnected (they promised to contact me back within 2-3 working days. Amazing!)

The conversation with the Customer Relationship wasn’t that memorable. The person just clarify if I would like (and not really like) to terminate my account with them. No further question asked (which makes me wonder if this is the way customer relationship should be). In short, that’s the end of my relationship with my Amex. Too bad, I actually would like to use it one more time during the GSS (Great Singapore Sale). Well, on the positive note, I do not need to pay my outstanding balance anymore . The whole experience makes me wonder of card which provides both the benefits and excellent customer service? I have a slot for it in my wallet…

This morning, Laverna choir shared the joy in another wedding celebration. Personally, this celebration was really special – it was the first NTU friend’s wedding attended. Their wedding is something that you’d cherish and valued. I was simply “mesmerized” by the sight of how they really belong to each other. The vows are loud and clear, and we know that they are ready to start a new chapter in their life together.

The mass was followed by a lunch reception in Novotel, Clarke Quay. They showed one of the loveliest (and the funniest) slideshow ever shown in a wedding party. I recognize the self-deprecating humour of the groom (Hairstyle? Soft-toys diplomacy? That’s a good one!). The reception was nice. Great occassion, good friends, catching up with each other’s life (including Mac vs PC topic – can’t you believe that?), and delicious food what more can you ask from?

As I returned from the reception and spent the evening (umm, alone ^-^”) I recalled snippets where he crossed path with mine. The place: Hall 9. The occassion: NTU CSA Freshmen Orientation Camp. It was a really brief crossing, followed by a longer one during Flag Day and another NTU CSA Camp the year after. I graduated, and met him attached in my company. After few weeks of isolation (sorry!) – he joined with me and my friend as a lunchmate. Lunch was never be the same again! Now I had totally different lunch groups – yet, the memory three of us talking about things in life (PDA and softwares) are still vivid and alive. Well, I guess the memory will come again as I open a new, original, and purchased softwares.

As I cherish this day, I’d like to wish both of you a blessed journey together. It was best summarized in the song that we sung this morning “The cross of love” :

“May your steps form a pathway for the Kingdom to appear.
May your course hold firm with constant truth enduring doubt and fear.
May each sunrise find you eager, for the day’s an opening mirror of God’s love;
so walk the cross of love….”

What was your experience calling a call center?

This evening I made a call to UOB Call Center to settle my credit card renewal bills. I was put on hold for about ten minutes listening to the music, while occassionally interupted by mechanical apologize. Interestingly, they have this “nifty” message that will asked you to press a button to confirm that you’re still there, waiting. If you don’t press it, believe me, they will disconnect you even after you’ve been waiting there for minutes. I learned my lesson, and they got my full attention this time.

I made a hypothesis while waiting. I guess they either really have lots of customers calls (at 10pm – problems?), or they have “survival of the fittest” game. They only want to answer call from those who really, really determined to talk with the customer service. Definitely, calling call center is not for everyone, especially with the weak ear, limited time or using prepaid mobile phone (like me). American Express has the worst service: they are only available during the working days – Monday to Friday. And they asked almost hundred for their annual fees.

In short, I’m dissappointed with both UOB and Amex services. That’s not a good thing to happen in Singapore, where the market is really competitive and increasingly saturated. Current solution: offer more and more cards (from platinum, titanium, black, woman, mini – I wonder what’s next). Each cards promised better privilege and better service. I doubt it. This is what I wish from a credit card company: a call that reminds me that I haven’t been using my card – and the annual fee is coming up soon. As a good gesture from the bank, they would waive the annual fee for another year. Contrast this with the current (common) practice, where the customer need to ask for termination before the sales people offer the waiver. Where’s the personalized service promised?

Now let’s see if American Express will do the same thing…

I was asked this afternoon about the difference between forum and blogs. Previously, I answered such question by listing different features of forum and blogs. My favorites: reverse chronological order vs categorical posting, threading vs linear conversation, which have also been described in more detail by Lee LeFever from Common Craft. Unfortunately, I often find myself in a situation where people argued that technically forum can be tweaked to behave as weblogs, and therefore forum is a better choice. This often happens in the context of an organization where I would like to introduce weblogs as part of Knowledge Management system. Understandably, I talked about weblogs when it was still a technical jargon. People are more familiar with the concept of forum (a.k.a bulletin board, message board, newsgroup). Majorities of online communities evolved around the concept of forum (we can still find communities formed through mailing list – though nowadays, it might be difficult to find mailing list communities without online presence in the form of bulletin board).

Obviously, a better approach is needed. Something that could make people go “Aha!” (and you know that they get it). Thus, this time I answered in slightly different manner. I used a metaphor of “The Market and The Open House”. Forum is the market whereas blog is the open house.

Now, imagine a crowded and noisy market (i.e. wet/flea market). There are two main roles in the market: buyers and sellers, with similar objective: to satisfy personal needs (or goals/objectives). Buyers would like to buy (good) products at bargain price, while sellers would like to sell their products making profits. Ideally, market exists in perfect competition model: “a hypothetical market form in which no producer [seller] or consumer [buyer] has the market power to influence prices in the market. This would lead to an outcome which is efficient, according to the standard definition in economics “.

Forum exhibits market characteristics, trading homogeneous product: information. People can be categorized into the one who has information and the one who seeks for information. The trading currency of this information, however, is slightly difficult to define. Yet, research in cooperation indicate that people are willing to share in the hope that they will receive help in the future (also known as generalized exchange – refer to the literature review in Levine’s paper (PDF)). This “hope” created a sort of network-wide accounting system that enables forum to function. The presence of a reputation system provides an incentive and makes this accounting system explicit . People who often participate regain better status and receive better recognition. The function of Forum as Market can be derived from various researches in collective action, online community, online cooperation, and social network. (Refer to the work of Peter Kollock, Marc Smith, Jenny Preece, Robert Axelrod, Robert Putnam, and Paul Resnick). By clearly defining the boundaries of the market, and addressing its social dynamic, a community can be formed. This is the “holy grail” of the people who set up the forum. Unfortunately, there is one problem here: the community can turn against its creator. The market could run by itself; thus, it will resist against any attempts that could disrupt the balance.

Weblogs, on the other hand, offer a slightly different model than the Markets. I call it as “the open house”. It is different from the market because the roles in the open house model are not equal: I name them as the host and the visitors. The ownership of the blog is made clear and obvious than in the forum, which is why many discussions and articles highlight the personal nature of weblogs. The ownership leads to the personality of the blog. Since it is an open house, anyone could visit the blog – as visitors. They have some degree of freedom (roaming around, mingle with fellow visitors, having some free lunch, etc) within certain boundaries set up by the host. If the visitor is found to behave inappropriately, the host could exercise his/her rights to rectify the situation. This is recognized as the norm in the open house model (but not in the market model). Herring noted this as asymmetrical communication right (PDF). Owner of the blog can control the conversation in the comment system – deleting spam, censoring flamming messages, etc. Although, the visitors could overwhelm the host – they could never take full control over the house. At most, they could cause the owner to close the open house – unlike in the markets and communities.

The open house model is quite an interesting model for organization who wants to establish a community of users. This community evolves around a “persona”. Given the right persona, organization could leverage on the power of “personal market community” to engage in the new market model – “the market is conversation” from the cluetrain manifesto. The benefit of personal market community is basically described in the benefits of corporate blogging (I like this old post written by Scoble and Shel Israel for their upcoming book “The Naked Conversation”).

The glitch however, is the second characteristic of weblogs: distributed conversation. This characteristic can be recognized from the concept of blogosphere. Its power is widely described – news are spread in global scope, quickly and permanently. As a result, bloggings are hailed as a new form of reporting/journalism (albeit there are some significant debates). I’d like to move beyond that and recognize the two important blogosphere phenomenons. First, the blogosphere can act as a counter balance that could correct mistakes or incorrect information posted by bloggers. I see the similarity of this phenomenon to James Surowiecki’s the wisdom of crowds. Second, the blogosphere is the new market community. The roles are no longer as buyers and sellers. In computer concept, it is no longer in the client-server model, but rather in the peer-to-peer model, a swarm. Here I noted that Steven Johnson’s concept of Emergence could be applied.

Thus, what’s the bottom line? I believe that blogs and blogosphere will reshape the understanding of how we could work and act together, especially in the Knowledge Management domain. Traditional concepts of online cooperation and online communities should be revisited because of the different social dynamics of “The Market and The Open House”.